He was that far behind the play because he didn't bother backchecking at all. He didn't even have to go full speed, had he at least participated in the play and been skating back towards his own end he would've been there in time to at least try to stop the shot on the wide open net.

I forgot he was the captain. Good lord. I used to be a fan of Ovechkin when he came into the league.

So much talent but so little heart.

He was covering his man at the right point. Covering the man in the crease was not his assignment. When the pass to the goalscorer was made, OV was too far away to do anything and he new it. He did not anticipate the need to come down and help out the D, but that play was a result of a turnover in their own zone, so he'd have to have the defensive hockey sense of a Datsyuk or a Guy Carbonneau to be able to anticipate that.

He ain't a threat to win the Selke any time soon, true, but on this play he was not lazy. Just looked that way because of how quickly the play happened.

Well, Ovie can help himself out by having an offensive explosion tomorrow against the Rangers. He did block some shots in Game 6 and did take a high stick in the face and kept skating in Game 3. It is just a shame to see him be lazy.

He was covering his man at the right point. Covering the man in the crease was not his assignment. When the pass to the goalscorer was made, OV was too far away to do anything and he new it. He did not anticipate the need to come down and help out the D, but that play was a result of a turnover in their own zone, so he'd have to have the defensive hockey sense of a Datsyuk or a Guy Carbonneau to be able to anticipate that.

He ain't a threat to win the Selke any time soon, true, but on this play he was not lazy. Just looked that way because of how quickly the play happened.

I know the man in the crease was not his assignment, but on the replay you can clearly see down the ice what Ovechkin is actually doing. He is not covering his man at the right point.

If that play happens against say the Coyotes and that's Shane Doan in Ovie's spot, Doan hussles back as he sees the play develop and knocks the Rangers player into next week as he's shooting the puck.

I'm not expecting Ovechkin to save a goal. I'd expect him to at least keep skating and be a part of the play, and try to help out his teammates when it's clear they're scrambling down low.

I know the man in the crease was not his assignment, but on the replay you can clearly see down the ice what Ovechkin is actually doing. He is not covering his man at the right point.

If that play happens against say the Coyotes and that's Shane Doan in Ovie's spot, Doan hussles back as he sees the play develop and knocks the Rangers player into next week as he's shooting the puck.

I'm not expecting Ovechkin to save a goal. I'd expect him to at least keep skating and be a part of the play, and try to help out his teammates when it's clear they're scrambling down low.

You are probably right about Doan.

But I watched the clip and I watched that NYR-Was game. On that play, it looked for a second like Was had control of the puck in their zone. OV released up ice in anticipation of a pass, like he always does, and like 9 of 10 scoring forwards in the league would do. When the puck was turned over, he started back, but didn't hassle because his defensmen (his check) was even farther away than he was. When he saw how the play developed, it was too late to hassle back because he knew he was too far away to do any good. Doan would have, Datsyuk or Zetterberg would have, if only in case of a miss or a rebound. But not many other forwards would have. In this clip it looks bad, but if OV hassled the result would have been the same, it would just have looked cosmetically better.

Ovechkin's an outstanding player, and you can find a million examples of him going above and beyond the expected level of effort. But what seems to get a lot of the Russians (and some non-Russians, like Franzen) in trouble is this decision "Whoop, I'm not really involved in this play, so why exert some type of 'false hustle' that won't change the outcome anyway?" More often than not, the extra effort probably wouldn't have made a difference, but the optics of it are terrible, and it's easy for Milbury types on intermission shows to pick them apart. I didn't see the full context of that play, but it looks horrible.

I was playing in a rec league game (one law school against a rival law school). I'm a garbage ice player so I was on the third line - one of their guys got loose in the crease and was going to get an easy rebound goal behind me. I had no shot of catching up to him, but I dove anyway, hoping that I could catch his stick on the backswing and do something to mess him up. He scored anyway, but that's an example of "failure that looks good", as opposed to "failure after conceding defeat". Same result either way, but we tend to favor one strongly over the other.

This is related to the evolving theory that you don't make a scoring winger a franchise centerpiece with a giant contract. A star center can make average wingers play great (see Kunitz and Dupuis on PIT), whereas a star winger with an average center will often get lost and become uninvolved in the game when things get tough. (See Ovechkin and Parise).

But I watched the clip and I watched that NYR-Was game. On that play, it looked for a second like Was had control of the puck in their zone. OV released up ice in anticipation of a pass, like he always does, and like 9 of 10 scoring forwards in the league would do. When the puck was turned over, he started back, but didn't hassle because his defensmen (his check) was even farther away than he was. When he saw how the play developed, it was too late to hassle back because he knew he was too far away to do any good. Doan would have, Datsyuk or Zetterberg would have, if only in case of a miss or a rebound. But not many other forwards would have. In this clip it looks bad, but if OV hassled the result would have been the same, it would just have looked cosmetically better.

Not true. Even at his minimum coasting speed, Ovechkin ended up about seven feet away from the goal-scorer. Ovechkin is a great skater. Had he hustled back, he would have reached Hagelin with plenty of time to spare. For that matter, so could have any player. Ovechkin missed the boat because he didn't put forth any hustle at all.

Perhaps the Caps would have won the series had he not blown this play so badly.

He had one goal and one assist in zero games to go along with that lazy-arsed play. So yeah, he was horrible. That's a completely unacceptable performance for a player of his caliber, of his salary, and of his position on the team.

I posted this in the series thread, but it bears repeating here since this seems to be the thread memorializing Ovechkin's fall from grace...

If anybody is curious about Ovechkin's take on the Capitals collapse... it wasn't his fault!

“The refereeing... You understand it yourself. How can there be no penalties at all (on one team) during the playoffs?

“I am not saying there was a phone call from (the league), but someone just wanted Game 7. For the ratings. You know, the lockout, escrow, the League needs to make profit... I don't know whether the refs were predisposed against us or the League. But to not give obvious penalties (against the Capitals), while for us any little thing was immediately penalized...”

For the money, I would love to have Kovalchuk on this team to pay with Dats. Long contract though....

edit: I know he is blamed for being lazy sometimes, but I would chose him over Ovie because of the hits to the head and ill advised penalties that Ovie tends to take....

Zetterberg - Datsyuk - Kovalchuk

Edited by LeftWinger, 14 May 2013 - 08:47 AM.

DAN WHATEVER YOUR f****** NAME IS CLEAR OR CLEARLY GET THE f*** OUT OF THIS TEAM BACK GO f****** LEARN TO PLAY MORON I PERSONALY DON'T GIVE A s*** THAT YR LEG IS f***ET UP, PLEASE LIIVE. ANF BABCOCK PLEASE GET READ OF OUR QUINESSSSSSYYYYY HOLLAND YOU JUST HIT THE JUCK f****** POTT!

And with that, he scurried out to his idling limousine (content in his own mind that he did everything he could to help Washington compete for the Stanley Cup) which would whisk him to the airport, where he would hop onto the next available flight so he might help his real love, Team Russia...in an attempt to be remembered.